Although my BMP 2010 is working just fine, over the past few days I have heard it 'clonk' two or three times, thus although I do regular Time Machine backup's I'm thinking of cloning my HD to another HD with something like 'Carbon Copy Cloner' just in case, thus if it does fail, I can just rip the current HD out of the Mac and replace it with the cloned... or at least that is what I hope I can do?

However, will the programs on the clone need re-registering or are they registered to the MBP itself?

Currently I have a IDE/SATA docking station with a USB connection, guess I'd do better getting one with FW800 [no USB3/Thunderbolt on my Mac]
Still I guess if it is cloned via USB 2 or FW800 makes no difference apart from the time to clone it... so maybe not.

You might have problems with Adobe & MS software and registration numbers, etc., but a clone is the way to go. Just make sure that it is bootable after you make it. If it is a bit out of date when you need to use it, your Time Machine backups will cover that.